NIIT and IIHT forms tie-up with Cisco

New Delhi, Feb 4: Fostering its goals to enhance the development of information technology (IT) talent in India, Cisco® today announced a series of country-specific initiatives aimed at expanding India"s capacity to train, employ and retain highly qualified networking and systems engineers. By establishing partnerships and opening testing facilities, Cisco aims to expand India"s networking workforce capacity to 360,000 engineers in the next five years, a six fold increase over present employment levels.

Two of India"s largest technologies training organizations, IIHT and NIIT, have become Cisco Certified Learning Solutions Partners. Announcing the development in a press release issued on 4 February, Cisco said the move is part of its initiative to establish partnerships and open testing facilities, aimed at expanding the country"s networking workforce six fold to 360,000 engineers in the next five years. With this designation, both IIHT and NIIT join Global Knowledge and Training Partner Ltd., a business unit of Datacraft India, in offering the complete range of authorized Cisco training materials and certifications to students and professionals in more than 200 locations throughout the country.

According to a recent IDC report on global skills, India"s surging economic development will create a demand for 137,000 more networking professionals by 2009. As an integral part of the training-development initiative, Cisco announced that two of India"s largest technologies training organizations, IIHT and NIIT, have become Cisco Certified Learning Solutions Partners. With this designation, both IIHT and NIIT join Global Knowledge and Training Partner Ltd., a business unit of Datacraft India, in offering the complete range of authorized Cisco training materials and certifications to students and professionals in more than 200 locations throughout the country.

“Globalization will continue to transform India"s economy and will require its young workforce to develop skills that are market-driven," said Leo Scrivner, vice president of human resources for Cisco Services&Globalisation Centre East. “The launch of our talent-development initiative in India underscores Cisco"s commitment to expand access to the IT training and certification resources that will support the country"s continued economic growth. With these initiatives in place, we are able to ensure that our customers and partners have the resources available to train and equip the thousands of motivated students in India with the knowledge and skills necessary to shape the country"s burgeoning information economy."

In concert with these new partnerships, Cisco is also announcing a major push toward increasing access to its examination facilities through its primary test-delivery partner, Pearson VUE. The company is committed to adding 150 testing facilities that meet these new requirements across India by the end of the year. To further close the digital divide, Pearson VUE will also deploy several mobile testing centers to increase access to technology in rural and underserved areas. Pearson VUE recently announced that it is requiring its test centers to adopt increased security measures in order to safeguard the value of IT certifications.

“With competition growing for the number of skilled personnel available in the market, companies are aggressively seeking to hire and retain knowledgeable staff," said Keshava Raju, CEO, IIHT Ltd. “IIHT has an impeccable track record of conducting training in networking and IT infrastructure for the last 15 years, and we are excited to be working with Cisco to expand opportunity and access to quality training to help address India"s national skills shortage."

“Significant talent shortages in sectors such as infrastructure management have opened up multiple career options for aspiring students and professionals," said G. Raghavan, president, Individual Learning Solutions, NIIT. “We are happy to unite with Cisco to develop talent in the Asia Pacific region."